


On a First Name Basis

by NaiyaKokoro



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Head Boy/Head Girl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-14
Updated: 2014-04-14
Packaged: 2018-01-19 08:17:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1462255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaiyaKokoro/pseuds/NaiyaKokoro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco and Hermione embark on a budding friendship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On a First Name Basis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aftertherayn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aftertherayn/gifts).



> The characters are a little too OOC for my liking, especially with Hermione, and I really didn't mean to be so mean to Ron! But I put this thing together the day before the due date, lol. Overall I really like this story and I hope you do too!

"Shit!"

 

Draco scrambled up on the table to try to pull his parchment away from the slowly spreading ink puddle but his arms couldn't reach far enough across the long table. The fruit of his afternoon labor was slowly being obscured by the ink that was being soaked up by the paper. The furry orange beast responsible for the entire thing was calmly perched on the table, licking its paw. Draco had half a mind to strangle the thing and leave its carcass in front of its owner's door.

 

Instead, grabbing the cat by the scruff of its neck, he dragged the yowling creature up the stairs leading to her door. "Granger!" He banged on her door. "Granger, open this door right now!"

 

There was no answer. He knocked again. "Granger, I know you're in there!"

 

Still no answer. Cursing at the thing clawing at his hand, he muttered the password to her door and tossed the cat inside just as its owner was heading out. He latched onto her thigh, sinking his untrimmed claws into her thigh and shredding her cream leggings.

 

“Ow! What the hell, Malfoy? No, Crooks –ow- Crookshanks! Let go of me!” With one final tug, Hermione was finally able pry the traumatized cat off of her. Setting him down gently on the floor, she now turned her attention to her ruined bottoms and the one responsible. He had the nerve to be standing there glaring at her instead of looking shocked or apologetic for what he’d just done.

 

“You ruined my outfit!” She smacked him on the side of the head.

 

“Yeah, well your beast ruined my work! And since when did you care about the way you look?”

 

She gave him a very incredulous look. “You’re weeks ahead of all of our classes anyway, just like I am. And this was supposed to be a special day for me. You know that I’ve been talking about this for weeks!”

 

A scoffing Draco stomped down the stairs and snatched a paper off of the table, went back up the stairs, and shoved it in her face. “I wasn’t doing work, Granger.”

 

“What’s this?” She pushed the paper back far enough for her to actually be able to read it. “University of the Magical Sciences? I never knew they had universities for witches and wizards.”

 

“Not universities, Granger. University. There is only one.”

 

“That doesn’t explain why I’ve never heard of it,” she replied.

 

“It’s very exclusive. They only accept the best of the best.”

 

“I am the best of the best!”

 

He raised an eyebrow. She smacked a palm to her face. “What I meant to say was…” She began to correct herself but he put up a hand to stop her.

 

“I know what you meant to say. And no one can deny that you’re the smartest witch around, but it takes more than smarts to get into this place, Granger. You need to have _it_ \- and before you asks, no one knows what _it_ is. The bottom line is that they’re very selective and they work very hard to only make themselves known to candidates they’re interested in. I could be seriously jeopardizing my chances by showing you this.”

 

“Oh.” She knew that he wasn’t going to say anything more on the subject. “But you still ruined my leggings!”

 

“Granger, Weasley won’t even notice. You’ll fit right in with the type of look that he’s used to.”

 

“Oh, for crying out loud, Draco-”

 

“Draco?”

 

She blushed and was suddenly very interested in the floor beneath them. “I just thought, well you know… What I mean to say is that we’ve been living together for several months now. And I think we actually get along rather well, so why not? I’d like to start calling you Draco, if that’s alright. And you can even call me Hermione, if you wish. Or not. Granger’s fine, if calling me by my first name is too weird-”

 

“Granger!” Her eyes snapped back up to meet his. “Hermione. I suppose we do get along rather well. Okay, we can call each other by our first names.”

 

She smiled at him. “I’d like that. Thanks, Draco.”

 

“You’re welcome.” He clapped her on the back. “And Granger? I’m sorry about your outfit. You looked really nice, before I threw your cat at you.”

 

There was that blush again. “Thanks, Draco. And I’m sorry that Crookshanks ruined your application. Hopefully it can be salvaged, maybe? Is there anything I can do to help?”

 

He waved it off. “Don’t worry about it, Hermione. It was crap anyway. I’ll write another one. Here, _reparo._ No harm done, all fixed. You might want to get rid of the cat hair, though.”

 

“Thanks, Draco.” For fuck’s sake, were they going to use each other’s’ names in every single sentence from now on? The conversation was getting a little too saccharine for Draco’s liking, and he had an application to finish. He was saved from having to make his excuses by the sound of someone trying to hammer their way through the portrait.

 

“That’ll be Ron.” She gave him an apologetic smile and headed down to meet him in the hall. She stopped short of the portrait and turned back to Draco, giving him a strange look as if she were contemplating blowing Weasley off to spend more time with Draco but then sighed and crawled out of the portrait hole. Draco shrugged off the strange conversation they’d just had and went back to his UMS application, making sure Hermione’s beast stayed locked up where it belong.

 

Three hours later, Draco had barely made a dent in his essay when Hermione came rushing through the portrait hole and deposited herself in a heap on the sofa. She wasn’t crying, but with the way she was hyperventilating Draco knew it wasn’t far off. He summoned a box of tissues and brought it over to her, sitting in an adjacent chair. She took one and wiped her eyes with it, muttering a quick thanks to Draco.

 

“Weasley?” he guessed.

 

She nodded. “He took me to Madam Puddifoot’s. I hate that place, but I went along with it anyway because from Ron, this was a pretty major gesture. And we were having a great time at first, until Lavender showed up with Seamus.”

 

Draco rolled his eyes. He knew where this was going, and he had better things to do, but his new friend was obviously in distress and he was never going to get any work done if she spent the rest of the night crying. He let her continue.

 

“So then he suggested that we leave, and I was happy to get out of that place, but I was a little peeved that he was letting his ex-girlfriend ruin our date, you know? So we went to the Shrieking Shack- no, don’t look at me like I’m crazy, Draco. Harry fixed the place up last summer. It’s really nice inside now. We were just hanging out and talking, and he was being really sweet so then I let him kiss me. But then he wanted more. And I’ve never gone past second base- sorry, it’s an American Muggle expression. I learned it on tv. Basically, it means I’ve never gone below the waist with a boy before. And he tried, but I just wasn’t ready, so then he got upset and informed me that _Lavender had let him do whatever he want._ And then he said the date was over and he brought me back and now I’m here.”

 

Draco wouldn’t admit it to Hermione, but he thought it was at least something that Weasley had brought her back to the castle. It was way more than what Draco expected of him.

 

“Hey.” He nudged her shoulder to get her to look up from her hands. “Don’t worry about Weasley. He’s a loser and you’ve got too much class for him.”

 

She blinked in surprise. “Really?”

 

“Really. Just forget that loser. You can do much better. Like Potter, for instance.”

 

She let out a very unladylike snort. “Harry is like a brother to me. That’s pretty gross.”

 

“Oh. Well you know what I meant. You’ve got a lot going for you, Granger. Don’t settle for some dimwit like Weasley, okay? I have an idea. I don’t think either of us is going to be very productive tonight. Why don’t we both get changed into something more comfortable and play a game of Exploding Snap?”

 

She smiled at him for what had to have been at least the tenth time that day, and Draco found himself smiling right back at her. He wasn’t sure of what was suddenly happening between them, and he didn’t think that she did either. But whatever it was, he was glad he had a new friend in Hermione Granger.


End file.
